220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rible folly. He undertook the translation of the " Life of Julius Caesar," 

 by Napoleon III, and to do it in a cruelly short time. He fulfilled his 

 contract by sitting up several nights successively by the aid of strong 

 tea or coffee (I forget which). I saw him shortly afterward. In a few 

 weeks he had aged alarmingly, and become quite bald, his brain gave 

 way and never recovered. There was but little difference between his 

 age and mine, and but for this dreadful cerebral strain, rendered pos- 

 sible only by the alkaloid (for otherwise he would have fallen to sleep 

 over his work, and thereby saved his life), he might still be amusing 

 and instructing thousands of readers by fresh volumes of jjopularized 

 archaeological research. 



I need scarcely add that all I have said above applies to coffee as 

 to tea, though not so seriously in this country. The active alkaloid is 

 the same in both, but tea contains weight for weight about three times 

 as much as coffee. In this country we commonly use about fifty per 

 cent more coffee than tea to each given measure of water, and thus 

 get about half as much alkaloid. On the Continent they use about 

 double our quantity (this is the true secret of " coffee as in France "), 

 and thus produce as potent an infusion as our tea. 



The above remarks are exclusively applied to the habitual use of 

 these stimulants. As medicines, used occasionally and judiciously, 

 they are invaluable, provided always that they are not used as ordinary 

 beverages. In Italy, Greece, and some parts of the East, it is cus- 

 tomary, when anybody feels ill, with indefinite symptoms, to send to 

 the druggist for a dose of tea. From what I have seen of its action 

 on non-tea-drinkers, it appears to be specially potent in arresting the 

 premonitory symptoms of fever, the fever-headache, etc. 



XLI. — AUTHORITIES ON TEA AND COFFEE. 



Since the publication of my last I have been reminded of the 

 high authorities who have defended the use of the alkaloids, and 

 more particularly of Liebig's theory, or the theory commonly attrib- 

 uted to Liebig, but which is Lehmann's, published in Liebig's " Anna- 

 len," Volume LXXXVII, and adopted and advocated by Liebig with 

 his usual ability. 



Lehmann watched for some rceeks the effects of coffee upon two 

 persons in good health. He found that it retarded the waste of the 

 tissues of the body, that the proportion of phosphoric acid and of urea 

 excreted by the kidneys was diminished by the action of the coffee, 

 the diet being in all other respects the same. Pure caffeine (which is 

 the same as theine) produced a similar effect ; the aromatic oil of the 

 coffee, given separately, was found to exert stimulating effect on the 

 nervous system. 



Johnstone (" Chemistry of Common Life "), closely following Lie- 

 big, and referring to the researches of Lehmann, says : " The waste 

 of the body is lessened by the introduction of theine into the stomach 



